Latest Story: Trouble Magnet (The) – most recent post 3/4/2025 (see Summary below)
A Man Named Bill – by Wrangler
Summary: Suffering from amnesia, Little Joe is found in a remote town, and his rescuers attempt to reunite him with his family without causing any further trauma.
Rating T, WC 22,000
Summary: This story addresses the arrival of Adam Cartwright after a ten year absence and how his return affects the remaining Cartwrights.
Rating: T ~ WC 25,500
Always My Son #1 – by Wrangler
Summary: A stranger arrives in town with the intent of ripping the family apart by claiming he’s Little Joe’s real father.
Rating T, WC 55,000
Always My Son #2 – The Color of Love – by Wrangler
Summary: This is a sequel to Always My Son.
Rating: K+ WC 18,000
Beautiful in My Eyes #1 – byWrangler
Summary: Francois Balantaire, a spurned suitor of Marie Cartwright’s, travels two thousand miles and twenty years to seek vengeance on her by scarring her son, Little Joe.
Rating T, WC 24,425
Beautiful in My Eyes #2 – No Night So Long – by Wrangler
Summary: The sequel to “Beautiful in My Eyes”, Little Joe struggles with the scar Francois left on his face, the Cartwrights search for the attacker and Hop Sing has a plan.
Rating T, WC 29,525 Links to stories in the series are included within.
Beautiful in My Eyes #3 – Every Storm Runs Out of Rain – by Wrangler
Summary: The “Beautiful in My Eyes” series concludes. Little Joe can no longer cope with his horrendous scar nor his hatred of Marie; the capture of Francois grows imminent.
Rating T, WC 30,508 Links to stories in the series are included within.
Best Loved Son (The) – by Wrangler
Summary: An accident during a hunting trip threatens to take the life of Ben Cartwright, later forcing him to reflect on his three sons and what they mean to him.
Rating T, WC 16,000
Best Medicine (The) #1 – by Wrangler
Summary: Ben struggles with saving Joe’s life having already dealt with an incompetent replacement physician. Followed by Malice A Forethought.
Rated T WC 11,000
Best Medicine (The) #2 – Malice Aforethought – by Wrangler
Summary: Little Joe finds himself desperate for his father’s help to save his life after the evil doctor Steven Hale gets a hold of him and injures him in an act of revenge.
Rated: T, WC 28,000
Links to stories in the series included within.
Best Medicine #3 – Coup De Grace – by Wrangler
Summary: Joe pays the ultimate price when he seeks vengeance on evil Dr Hale who maimed his leg and got off scot-free.
Rating T-13, WC 43,800
Calling Up Angels – by Wrangler
Summary: When a little boy is left in Little Joe’s care, he hopes to adopt him however problems arise which might prevent the adoption. A tale of love and loss. Rating T, WC 19,348
Ever With You – Wrangler Summary: Little Joe couldn’t believe it when Pa turned his back and walked away. Adam had been injured and it was Joe’s fault and Ben refused to get him out of the charges or even post bail. Now after six weeks in the Virginia City jail Joe must face Pa for the first time and make a tough decision about his future. A lesson about love, the tough kind.
Rating T (word count 21,290)
Every Purpose Under Heaven #1 – by Wrangler
Summary: Thieves invade the Ponderosa, setting devastating events into motion. Now Little Joe struggles to find a way to get over what happened to him that horrible night.
Rating T, WC 36,000 Part one, links to stories in the series included within.
Every Purpose Under Heaven #2 – Another Season – by Wrangler
Summary: Ben hires newcomer Luke Thrasher but his ties to an old enemy of Joe’s shocks everyone and sets Joe up for murder charges.
Rating MA, WC 52,000
Every Purpose Under Heaven #3 – Dru – by Wrangler
Summary: When Hoss falls in love with Drucilla Carrington it leads to trouble when Little Joe remembers where he met her and it’s not where a lady should’ve ever been.
Rating T, WC 27,000
Every Purpose Under Heaven #4 – All Our Yesterdays – by Wrangler
Summary: In the long-awaited conclusion of the Every Purpose Under Heaven series, the family helps Joe as he seeks closure. Along the way he is forced to deal with a friend’s struggle, a gunfight, an injury and an unplanned pregnancy.
Rating: PG (36,630 words)
Summary: When Ben is told that Little Joe is dying, they board a stagecoach and begin the race against time to save his life.
Rating T, WC 36,200
Summary: Two opposites collide, a serial killer targeting young men and 17 year old Little Joe whose cavalier attitude puts him in harm’s way.
Rating T, WC 31,000,
Hellbent, Population – 98 – by Wrangler
Summary: On a layover in the town of Hellbent, Ben and Joe encounter more than they ever expected. Now they recount their story to Hoss and hope he believes them.
Rating T WC 16,326
I’m Already There – by Wrangler
Summary: Little Joe doesn’t know what to do with himself when Pa is delayed and can’t make his seventeenth birthday. A simple sweet tale.
Rating T, WC 3326
Summary: Little Joe is consumed with guilt when his best friend is accidently shot and killed. Unable to forgive himself, Joe heads down a dangerous self-destructive path.
Rating T, WC 21,861
If Silence Keeps You – by Wrangler
Summary: With word of Ben Cartwright’s death, the three Cartwright brothers must decide if they’ll keep the Ponderosa going in order to preserve their father’s legacy. Meanwhile, it’s Little Joe whose nightly dreams propel him to search for the truth about how his father perished and if he’s really dead.
Rating – T, WC 28,200,
If Your Heart Cries Out Tonight – by Wrangler
Summary: Little Joe reflects back to when he challenged an important decision that his father made. Now, at seventeen, he discovers why Pa was right.
Rating T, WC 10,225,
Summary: When Joe arrived in Savannah to be Clay’s best man he never knew he’d be running for his life after contracting yellow fever. Now home, he recounts the terrifying details to his family.
The First Born
Rating T, WC 47,230
Summary: A frightened young woman’s lie has devastating consequences for Joe when her father refuses to believe his legacy of honor. Rated T WC 35,000
Love’s Last Whisper #1 – by Wrangler
Summary: Twelve years after the loss of Marie Cartwright a man with a grudge against Ben commits the unthinkable; the desecration of Marie’s grave and the theft of her casket. Now as a combined, yet grieving, force Ben and his boys begin their search for what was stolen.
Rated: K+ WC 103,000
Love’s Last Whisper #2 – Checkmate: The Return of Bristol Ford – by Wrangler
Summary: Three years after he had put the Cartwrights through the trauma of stealling Marie Cartwright’s casket, Bristol Ford returns with a more sinister plot than before. What he accomplishes changes the relationship between Ben and Joe.
Rating: T 66,200 words
Summary: When Joe tries to break a black stallion he learns that he should’ve listened to his Pa as the cost proves to be too high..
Rating T WC 11,120
Morpheus – by Wrangler Summary: Joe wreaks havoc during his many attempts to save Pa from being killed after having a recurring nightmare. This comedy/drama was written to celebrate Michael Landon’s life and his request to remember him with laughter.
Rating T, WC 13,600
Summary: Ben shares his thoughts about both the tragedy and triumph he experiences when Little Joe is blinded. Based on the episode, “The Stillness Within”.
Rating T, WC 7430
Summary: After his father is shot, Joe fights to keep him alive while hiding a deadly secret
Rating: Teens 28,900 words
Promise Trilogy (The) #1 – by Wrangler
Summary: A ghostly apparition haunts Ben after Little Joe is feared dead. Can an act of fate restore that which is lost?
Rating T, WC 31,000
Promise Trilogy (The) #2 – The Jonah – by Wrangler
Summary: Little Joe struggles to come to terms with what happened during the stagecoach attack while dealing with townsfolks who deem him to be a Jonah for having been the sole survivor.
Rating T, WC 30,000
Promise Trilogy (The) #3 – With Wings as Eagles – by Wrangler
Summary: Lone Eagle seeks to kill Little Joe after sparing his life in “The Promise”. Can Joe endure the torture planned for him?
Rated T, WC 34,000
Raising the Stakes – by Wrangler
Summary: Joe sits down at a high-stakes poker table and gambles with something he can’t afford to lose.
Rated T WC 19,000
Summary: Ben recalls a bittersweet moment from the past when a special gift from Little Joe caused a big misunderstanding.
Rating T, WC 2,568
Summary: This story was written to finally explain the death of Hoss Cartwright. In her mind at the time, the author felt it should be addressed, since the television show chose not to explain the absence of that very pivotal character. You will probably be able to spot the lack of mangling, but, hopefully will like this peek back to where it all began.
Rated: T WC 11,000
Summary: A man seeking revenge makes three attempts at killing Little Joe, will the third time be the charm?
Rated T, WC 36,000
Summary: As Little Joe lays trapped under wreckage of his wagon, he is rescued by Hoss who is lying comatose at home. He then has to convince his father that what he experienced was real.
Rated T, WC 19,000
Summary: Sorting through a box of mementos, Ben finds a gift Little Joe made when he was five and recalls how it helped the Cartwrights through their first Christmas without Marie.
Rating T, WC 12,520
Star of the Show (The) – by Wrangler
Summary: The town’s Christmas pageant brings down the curtains in epic proportions. Will there be Peace on Earth?
Rating: K WC 4300
Stay in the Darkness #1 – by Wrangler
Summary: After Joe is found alive after months spent in captivity, his family’s joy is short-lived. Now Ben, Adam, and Hoss must decipher why Joe adamantly insists that for the rest of his life he must “Stay in the Darkness ”
Rating T-13. Word count 40,990
Stay in the Darkness #2 – New Light – by Wrangler
Summary: The Cartwrights go after the Dalton brothers and Joe struggles to face the horrors done to him in the cabin in order to leave the darkness and come into A New Light.
Rating: MA (graphic violence and adult subject matter) WC 56,939
Stay in the Darkness #3 – Chiaroscuro – by Wrangler Summary: When his father is kidnapped Little Joe dons an alias and a disguise as he heads off to search for him. Meanwhile, Adam and Hoss go in another direction to find Pa and soon realize that he hadn’t been the target all along.
Rating T-13 WC 42,240
Stay in the Darkness #4 – The Sound of Surviving – by Wrangler
Summary: Though his family thinks he’s paranoid due to the trauma of the past year Joe insists he’s acting instinctively. Now he faces one final battle to prove he’s a survivor and no longer a victim.
. Rating T, WC 37,040
Third Son (The) #1 – by Wrangler
Summary: The Cartwrights find mystery and danger when Little Joe is gifted a strange present by Ben’s late uncle; which proves to be a curse when Joe is attacked.
Rating T, WC 41,000
Third Son (The) #2 – Devil’s Hold (The) – by Wrangler
Summary: The lives of the Cartwrights are turned upside down when Joe falls into an old well setting the stage for more mystery and danger.
Rating T, WC 38,900
Third Son (The) #3 – Payback – by Wrangler
Summary: It’s time for payback when Little Joe is unwittingly duped by Pete Timmons, setting the stage for one final battle between them. .
Rating T, WC 22,067
Trouble Magnet (The) – by Wrangler
Summary: All Ben Cartwright wanted was one day without Little Joe getting hurt in some way. Pa learns never to tempt fate again once he returns home that night.
Rating T, WC 10,618
Truth Be Told (The) – by Wrangler
Summary: There’s trouble brewing when Pa accuses his youngest of coming home drunk on several occasions but Little Joe insists he’s innocent. The truth proves to be unpredictable.
Rating T, WC 13,401er
Whatever It Takes #1 – by Wrangler
Summary: Whatever it Takes is the first story in this series. When Joe is seriously injured, the remedy serves to be much more harsh than anyone expected.
Rated: T WC 22,000
Whatever It Takes #2 – Absolute Faith – by Wrangler
Summary: Two men seek revenge on Little Joe by forcing him to use the medicine which had almost killed him before.
Rating T, WC 32,000
Whatever It Takes #3 – A Part of the Main – by Wrangler
Summary: Little Joe travels to San Francisco to help one of Dr. Peele’s patients and encounters danger and a strange turn of events when Ben gets there.
Rated T, WC 22,000
Whatever It Takes #4 – Mustard Seed – by Wrangler
Summary: Paralyzed after suffering a rare stroke, Little Joe will need faith the size of a mustard seed in order to fully recover.
Rating T, WC 45,000
Permission was given by Wrangler for DebF to write the next story in this series:
Whatever It Takes #5 – To Help a Stranger – by DebF
Summary: This is the 5th story of this series.
Rated: T WC 19,000
Whatever It Takes #6 – Of One Breath – by Wrangler
Summary: After the death of his dearest friend, Joe takes a downward spiral. Can his father stop him before he surrenders to old temptations?
Rating: T (24,890)
When October Goes – by Wrangler
Summary: Ben disowns Little Joe; Adam fights him in town and Hoss ignores him. Now everyone wants to know why. The reason lies in October.
Rating T, WC 41,844
When You Remember Me – by Wrangler
Summary: After a serious head injury wipes out part of Pa’s memory, Doctor Martin is unsure if Ben will ever remember one of his sons.
Rating T WC 24,300 Ben/Joe Hurt/Comfort
Summary: When a man seeking revenge traps Pa in a mine, Little Joe races against time to find him. Adam, Hoss, and Hop Sing must then rescue them both.
Rating T, WC 23,175